Grundmann, Stefan --- "The Role of Competition in the European Codification Process" [2010] ELECD 219; in Micklitz, Hans-W.; Cafaggi, Fabrizio (eds), "European Private Law after the Common Frame of Reference" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: European Private Law after the Common Frame of Reference

Editor(s): Micklitz, Hans-W.; Cafaggi, Fabrizio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848444072

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The Role of Competition in the European Codification Process

Author(s): Grundmann, Stefan

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

3. The role of competition in the
European codification process
Stefan Grundmann

I. CODIFICATION? QUALITY?
Most notable contract lawyers in countries such as Germany and Italy (coun-
tries which are still rather positive about a European contract law, and even
about its codification in an optional instrument) seem to be highly sceptical
about the outcome of the (Academic) Common Frame of Reference
(`ACFR').1 They have different concerns, reflecting their differing approaches
to contract law. Amongst the concerns they have identified are that there is
little new in the ACFR; it contains an abundance of vague decisions or non-
decisions on core questions; it lacks a convincingly coherent structure; and it
contains virtually no input from other branches of the social sciences which
engage substantially with contract; and, more generally, it inadequately
reflects concerns for `social justice'.2 Furthermore, the ACFR has been seen as


1 C. v Bar, E. Clive, H. Schulte-Nölke et al. for the Study Group on a European
Civil Code and Research Group on EC Private Law (Acquis Group) (eds.), Principles,
Definitions and Model Rules of European Private Law ­ Draft Common Frame of
Reference (DCFR) (Munich: Sellier, 2008). Irrespective of the impact of the ACFR on
it, this chapter does not deal with the so-called `horizontal directive' in the core area of
consumer law, consolidating the four directives on Sales, Unfair Terms, Doorstep and
Distance Selling, in one; see now Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament
and of the Council on ...